Position in chronology
MDP 06, 4998
About this tablet
This is an administrative accounting tablet from Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE — making it among the very earliest written records in the world. It records quantities of commodities (the exact nature of which cannot be identified without a fuller decipherment of proto-cuneiform) using a numerical system of impressed circles and semicircles. The tablet belongs to a corpus of proto-cuneiform texts from Susa that parallels the famous Uruk administrative tablets from southern Mesopotamia, reflecting the spread of early bureaucratic writing across the ancient Near East. Too damaged and too early in the history of writing to yield a fully readable text, it nonetheless preserves the essential structure of ancient bookkeeping: commodity signs on the left, quantities on the right.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several entries of goods or commodities — their exact nature is not yet deciphered — each followed by a quantity expressed in the numerical notation of the time. A typical entry reads something like: '[Commodity type X]: 2 large units and 1 smaller unit.' Another entry gives '[Commodity M066~a / M352~n]: 2 large measures, 2 medium measures, 7 standard units, 3 small units, 2 additional units.' Several lines are too broken to read, and the signs for the commodities themselves remain undeciphered. The overall picture is of a systematic accounting record — a tally of goods received, distributed, or stored.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] 2(N39B) 1(N24) [M347?] [M370?] |M347+X|? [sign] [...] [...] [...] [...] 1(N39B) [M010~2] : 4(N14) 5(N1@b) [M195~d] [...] [signs] [M288] : 2(N34) 1(N45) 2(N39B) 1(N24) [M066~a] [M352~n?] [...] [M288] : 2(N34) 2(N45) 7(N14) 3(N01) 2(N39B) [...] |M195+M038~a|? [M388] [M352~n?] [M301] [M057~a] [M288?] : [...] [sign] [M387~c] [M006] [sign] : 4(N14)? n(N01) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 2(N39B) 1(N24) M347#? M370#? |M347+X|? x [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N39B) M010~2 , 4(N14) 5(N1@b) M195~d [...] x x x M288# , 2(N34)# 1(N45) 2(N39B) 1(N24) M066~a M352~n#? [...] M288 , 2(N34) 2(N45) 7(N14) 3(N01) 2(N39B)# [...] |M195+M038~a|#? M388 M352~n#? M301 M057~a M288#? , [...] x M387~c M006 x , 4(N14)#? n(N01)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 4998. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P272826) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.